ACT Division President’s Report January 2024

Even though it’s 4 to 5 weeks late – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you had a safe and happy time, and a restful one for those who were on (or are on) leave. For those who have been working in practice– it’s been silly season- busy (what’s new!) and I hope you and all your colleagues have kept well (physically and mentally).

Amongst days full of euthanasias and deaths, challenging medical cases and complex surgeries, we had “my dog is sick because it ate a chicken head” (the dog had a tick after holidaying near Lismore with no tick prevention) and the “snakebite (seen playing with a baby Brown)” that was an untreated Hyperthyroidism case. I wonder how AI would cope with cases like those?

ACT Animal Welfare – Codes of Practice

As flagged in my last President’s Report, your Division Committee were invited to and submitted comments on revisions to the ACT’s Codes of Practice for the Welfare of Cats, and of Domestic (i.e. non-commercial) Poultry. I am very grateful to the members of the Committee for their contribution to our submissions, and especially to Dr Sandy Hume (who pretends to be retired) for his expert comments on the Code for Poultry, and to AVA Senior Advocacy Officer Liz Gemes for collating and submitting our comments. In the last 18 months, the ACT Animal Welfare Committee have called for comments on 8 Codes, and AVA ACT has submitted significant, evidence-based comments on each of them.

Speaking of the ACT Animal Welfare Committee, the AVA’s long serving representative to this committee, Dr Melanie Latter, is retiring from the Committee and AVA are seeking Expressions of Interests (EOI) for a new AVA representative. Please contact Liz Gemes at Liz.Gemes@ava.com.au before 8 February for further information and lodging your EOI. Melanie has represented the AVA with distinction and has contributed greatly to Animal Welfare regulation and procedure in the ACT, and we thank her for her service.

Branch Formation

I’m very pleased to announce that the call for seven ACT Division members to be signatories to the formation of an ACT and District Branch of the AVA, was answered quickly, and Branch formation is going ahead. You will recall that the AVA Board has more closely defined the roles of Divisions (Advocacy, Member Services) and Branches (Social and CPD). This meant that in order to hold events, we needed to form a Branch. (AVA Division and Branch Statement of Purpose).

While proceeding with Branch Formation, we have also started planning for two events for 2024. The first will be a “New Graduate, New to Canberra (and District)” event, to be held in early March. After two successful such events organised by Dr Natalie Wood in the last two years (one with dermatologist Dr Dani Hoolahan, and one with members of the team at ARH), this year’s event will be held in conjunction with Canberra Veterinary Emergency Services with CPD on companion animal emergency topics. It will be held at Gungahlin Veterinary Hospital (where CVES is based). Please keep this in mind for newer veterinary employees, and look out for more details in the next month.

Our second planned event is for a “Christmas in July” function, including both speakers and activities. More details in the near future.

Elections

Indonesia is the world’s fourth largest country by population (278,794,321 as at 21 Jan 2024), the world’s largest Muslim country (87% of the population are Muslim, exceeding the population of any other Muslim country), and the world’s second largest democracy, with more than 206 million registered voters and a voter turn-out of ~ 87%. Indonesia also has the world’s biggest elections, because over the last few voting cycles, the Presidential, National, Regional and Local legislatures have all had their elections on the same day. The next General election is 24 February 2024.

The AVA may not be quite so large, but, like Indonesia, all AVA State and Territory Divisions are holding their elections on the same day this year. And this date is Friday 23 February, so at least the AVA elections will be out of the way before the Indonesian election (the next day!).

Information about serving on your Division Committee, the voting process, and relevant dates are all available in an email you will have received on 22 January (my day of writing) and also available here (AVA Elections Page). A Division Committee can have up to 9 members, who sit for two year terms, and members can sit for up to 4 terms. If more than 9 candidate nominations are received, a ballot is held, otherwise election is automatic. A recent change is that nominators are not required – you simply nominate yourself. Note – you do not have to live in the Division to be a member of the Division Committee.

Serving on an AVA Committee is not onerous – we typically meet (virtually, or in-person if possible) every two months, and very satisfying – the current Committee is a great bunch of people with varied experience and roles in our profession, but all passionate veterinarians keen to serve members, and the profession’s role in animal health, welfare and production. We welcome new members!

ACT Elections – AVA Advocacy

This is also an election year for the ACT (again, not as large as the Indonesian elections) – the date is 19 October 2024. Local elections are a great opportunity to get the attention of those seeking election and who will then have the power to effect change in the ACT for the next four years. Candidates want to hear the views of voters, the issues that concern them and their suggestions for change.

The AVA has an Advocacy Team, and one of their roles is to identify issues affecting the profession and the areas that our profession are interested in and serve, and to advocate for the positions that the profession (through the AVA) holds on relevant issues.

We want to know what concerns you! What would you like to see changed in local (ACT) legislation, policy or procedure? What should we be calling for to help our profession – vets in all the roles we do, and the paraprofessional and staff we work with? What changes do you think would be good for your clients, and for animals and their owners in general? What changes could benefit wildlife in the area? What about the way we handle strays, unwanted animals and animals living on the streets? What about the animals loved by the homeless and those struggling in our difficult economic times?

Your Division Committee has a list of issues, which we will discuss with you in the future, but first we want to hear from you! Please email your suggestions to Liz.Gemes@ava.com.au  or speak to one of the Committee members.

You will also have received an email today (22 January) from the AVA about the development and issues in our Federal Government Budget Submission.

Meeting with the ACT Veterinary Practitioner’s Board

On Friday 19 January, Liz Gemes and I met (virtually) with the ACT VPB to discuss matters of mutual interest. These included:

• The development the AVA ACT Election Platform (NSW AVA Election Platform as an example) and that were considering the following issues to include:
  • Registration of the whole veterinary team (vet nurses and technicians)
  • EAD and disaster resourcing  
  • Build and retain veterinary workforce
  • Veterinary mental health support – AVA Thrive funding
  • Recouping the costs of delivering public good services (wildlife, discounted/pro-bono services, desexing, vaccinations, low socioeconomic clients)
• The VPB identified that the AVA may want to include in the Election Platform the matter of continuity of service (afterhours). (Members might be interested in the significant commentary regarding issues with afterhours requirements that were raised in the Inquiry into veterinary workforce shortages in NSW and the AVA representations on the matter. Of interest, the AVA recently provided After-hours safety of veterinary staff risk mitigation strategies.)
• The VPB advised the ACT Veterinary Practices Act will be reviewed in 2024. We’ve requested a timeframe for the review and sought to be included early in the review development.
• Discussed the new national EAD data base and VPB including the EAD participation question on ACT registrations. Also discussed the AVA advocacy for formalising the ACT/NSW support arrangements for EAD & disasters.
• We extended an invitation to VPB for 1-2 representatives from the ACT VPB to attend part of the AVA ACT Division Committee meeting being held in-person on Tuesday 9 April at 5pm.
• The VPB asked whether the ABVA ACT Division had an agreed attitude on Tick Prevention for local dogs. We explained that we had instituted a survey to try to gather enough data to be able to formulate an agreed position on this issue. This is an opportunity to remind all practitioners about this survey and to ask that you complete an entry for every tick case you see. The survey is available here: Tick Survey and results will be progressively published in future monthly Newsletters. You are also reminded that the University of Queensland is seeking specimens of ticks for genetic mapping studies link.

ACT Health Directorate - Regulatory Accountability Framework

“ACT Health Directorate is developing a Regulatory Accountability Framework to guide improvements to its regulatory services and public health outcomes over time. The aim is to incorporate best-practice regulatory principles into systems, processes and culture to better position the Directorate as a transparent and effective regulator.

The Framework will outline the Directorate’s vision for public health regulation and a set of principles to guide regulatory decision making and program delivery. It will also outline a set of strategic domains and early actions to strengthen our service delivery to businesses, health services and for the community.”

We have been invited to a workshop to be held on 29 January; the AVA will be represented by Dr John Aspley Davis, and myself. Please contact us if you have issues with the regulation of veterinarians and the wide profession, with radiation or other aspects of health protection, or with pharmaceuticals legislation and it’s regulation in the ACT.

We would be particularly interested to hear from independent house call practitioners on issues with prescribing and supply of medications – this includes horse and large animal practitioners.

AVA Awards 2024

Nominations for AVA National Awards are closing on the 16 February. Please submit your suggestions (including some supporting information) to the Division Committee at least 10 days before that date, via Liz.Gemes@ava.com.au.

 

Michael Hayward                                                                              Michael.Hayward@gungahlinvet.com.au      04186125321

22 January 2024